736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rural population, as proposed in the Radical programme,* and as urged 

 by the Democratic Federation, which insists on " the compulsory con- 

 struction of healthy artisans' and agricultural laborers' dwellings in 

 proportion to the population." Manifestly, the tendency of that which 

 has been done, is being done, and is presently to be done, is to ap- 

 proach the socialistic ideal in which the community is sole house-pro- 

 prietor. 



Such, too, must be the effect of the daily growing policy on the 

 tenure and utilization of the land. More numerous public benefits, 

 to be achieved by more numerous public agencies, at the cost of aug- 

 mented public burdens, must increasingly deduct from the returns on 

 land ; until, as the depreciation in value becomes greater and greater, 

 the resistance to change of tenure becomes less and less. Already, 

 as every one knows, there is in many places difficulty in obtaining 

 tenants, even at greatly reduced rents ; and land of inferior fertility 

 in some cases lies idle, or when farmed by the owner is often farmed 

 at a loss. Clearly the margin of profit on capital invested in land is 

 not such that taxes, local and general, can be greatly raised to sup- 

 port extended public administrations, without an absorption of it 

 which will prompt owners to sell, and make the best of what reduced 

 price they can get by emigrating and buying land not subject to 

 heavy burdens, as, indeed, some are now doing. This process, carried 

 far, must have the result of throwing inferior land out of cultivation ; 

 after which there will be raised more generally the demand made by 

 Mr. Arch, who, addressing the Radical Association of Brighton lately, 

 and contending that existing landlords do not make their land ade- 

 quately productive for the public benefit, said "he should like the 

 present Government to pass a Compulsory Cultivation Bill " : an ap- 

 plauded proposal which he justified by instancing compulsory vacci- 

 nation (thus illustrating the influence of precedent). And this demand 

 will be pressed, not only by the need for making the land productive, 

 but also by the need for employing the rural population. After the 

 Government has extended the practice of hiring the unemployed to 

 work on deserted lands, or lands acquired at nominal prices, there will 

 be reached a stage whence there is but a small further step to that 

 arrangement which, in the programme of the Democratic Federation, 

 is to follow nationalization of the land the " organization of agri- 

 cultural and industrial armies under state control on co-operative 

 principles." 



If any one doubts that such a revolution may be so reached, facts 

 may be cited to show its likelihood. In Gaul, during the decline of 

 the Roman Empire, " so numerous were the receivers in comparison 

 with the payers, and so enormous the weight of taxation, that the 

 laborer broke down, the plains became deserts, and woods grew where 



* " Fortnightly Review," November, 1883, pp. 619, 620. 



